Colin's Conquest

Something is out there watching me…
The downy hairs on the back of her neck stood erect jutting from her skin, a lightning bolt about to strike and an anxious tide of goose flesh followed, down both arms then her bare legs. Joanna peered into the darkness, searching for eyes watching her under the shadowy cloak of the dense forest surrounding her. The lake and the surrounding woods no longer appeared comforting and serene, on the contrary, every tree hid a demon and the moonbeams reflecting off the still water cast menacing shadows into the small clearing. A chill passed through her as she spun around to face the woods.
Some…“thing” is STILL out there watching me….
Panting, her pulse racing out of control, she clutched her chest, trying in vain to slow the pounding there. Searching the trees, she saw nothing out of the ordinary, no glowing eyes, no swaying branches, no movement in the underbrush…nothing. Seeing nothing, she cocked her head to one side and listened close to the sounds of the thicket. The evening choir of crickets and tree frogs should be reassuring but now it only intensified her fear. So disconcerting to be unable to find the source of her anxiety!
She could neither see nor hear anything out of the ordinary and yet…she just knew something was out there, something bad. As if nothing were the matter, she rose from the sandy shoreline, dusted off her khaki shorts, stretched both arms over her head and faked a wide yawn. It took every ounce of courage she possessed to keep herself from running the sixty or so yards to the cabin door, but walk she did and at a slow pace, no less. She had never let anything spook her in her beloved woods and she was not about to start being frightened by every shadow just because she was alone up here. After entering the cabin she turned and bolted the door, then darted to the window and peered out at the close wall of trees.
The blend of hardwoods, pines and vines intertwined to form an almost impenetrable barricade for humans, but other creatures more adapted to the thicket moved freely and thrived in this luscious setting. Parts of the old folklore came to mind as she stared out at the trees...mysterious animals living undetected in the denser knots of woods never discovered by man, people disappearing without a trace, criminals hiding out in the thicket to avoid prosecution, and on and on. An entire book could be written on the folklore alone and who knew how much of it was actually true.
Ignoring the ball of fear still in the pit of her rumbling stomach, she turned around to survey the cabin. Her beat up old suitcases sat beside the door where she dropped them when she arrived this afternoon. Threadbare bed sheets of violet and green floral print covered the furniture as makeshift dust covers.
In the middle of the kitchen table, her sleepy parrot in his pagoda shaped birdcage sat under the watchful eye of Patches, her calico cat. The cat’s tail twitched back and forth and cleaned a nice half moon of dust off the table. Neither one of her pets seemed nervous or alarmed so she began to feel silly about being afraid of nothing. She smiled, lifting one corner of her mouth as she saw Patches sneak a paw through the bars of Pete’s cage.
“Patches, you leave that bird alone!”
Her soft voice seemed to her to be a booming bellow echoing through the thicket and she clamped her lips shut, still uneasy about attracting any visitors, real or imaginary.
She sighed and strove to relax herself. Sliding in a CD she turned the volume low and listened to the lilting piano of Lorie Line on her “Songs for the Earth” collection. The music floated around the room, filling every corner and chasing away those jangled nerves with the first few notes. Feeling her chest swell with the joy of the music and the joy of being back at the cabin, she smiled, ran her fingers through her long hair and glanced around the neglected room once more. Good memories surfaced of past trips here with her family…her grandmother at the stove making breakfast tacos for the entire family, her Dad and Grandpa out in the woods searching out good spots to build photo blinds for her younger sister the photography buff, and one of the most amusing memories, her mother out at the lake as soon as the sun came up trying her best to catch a fish. She laughed because her poor mother never once caught a fish out of that lake. After she left home, the family trips became few and far between. Oh how she missed coming here!
Removing the dust cover from the armchair with an exaggerated flip of her wrist, she flopped like a rag doll into the chair. Stretching her legs, she placed them on the padded footstool and sighed again.
Now this is better… Joanna laid her head back and closed her eyes, glad to be here, glad to be away from work and home. Ah, so pleasant to just sit and relax.
Patches jumped in her lap, purring and kneaded herself a nice warm place to sleep in her favorite naptime spot. She knew her human would stroke her from head to tail and scratch behind her ears. It was kitty heaven and she purred her contentment as her big copper eyes closed for another catnap.
* * * *
He gazed through the window at her, his mouth filling with saliva that threatened to run down his chin if he didn’t swallow fast enough. Delicious, this woman, Ben thought, as he gulped and swallowed once more. Her head thrown back, blouse unbuttoned enough to see her collarbone and her long slender neck, the pulse beating under her jaw, he could almost taste her from where he stood, so tantalizing she appeared. Her short blouse did not cover her midriff and the smooth skin of her belly beckoned to him as much as the length of her throat did. He swallowed again and felt his fangs fall into place beneath his lip as his heart marched in triple time against his ribs.
A riot of lovely colors, this young woman, from the sun kissed blush on her cheeks to her luxurious dark hair and those vibrant green eyes that he glimpsed before she dropped her lids. Nature’s child, no doubt, her khaki shorts and rich pine green shirt accented her glowing tanned skin and long black hair. Even her choice of music matched her earthy appearance. He wanted to touch her, to visit her like an exquisite landscape that one never forgets.
The creator forbade him to enter her home. He knew this, but even with those archaic rules running rampant through his mind Ben so wanted to taste this woman. Colin’s words, spoken so long ago, sounded in his head as if he stood right next to him. “Kill only the fools or the evil ones. Leave the innocents alone. Never enter a secured home without an invitation.” Hmm. Despite the possible repercussions, he could break the rules, just this once. How would his creator know anyway?
Holding his breath, he eased the window up with one finger. Delightful! The latch no longer worked. Ben’s cue that he should lift the window farther. The heat from the stuffy cabin seeped from the cracked window, burning his eyes, and he reached to lift the glass higher letting in the cooler air from outside. How could she stand that heat?
“Forbidden!” The growled censure startled him and for a moment, he didn’t know if the growl remained inside his head or if the woman in the cabin heard it also. He dropped his hand from the window and spun around as he felt someone watching him from the woods. He saw nothing and now he knew how the girl had felt when she sensed him watching her from the woods earlier. He saw no one there, but yet, he knew someone or something watched him. He tried, but couldn’t detect Colin’s presence or that of another human either. The sensation bothered him, but his preoccupation with his future conquest distracted him so. Finally he shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the window and the vision just on the other side of the glass. He smiled with relief when he heard the sounds of a four footed creature moving away through the thicket. After all, four-footed creatures posed no danger to his kind.
The breeze off the lake lifted the lemon yellow gauze curtains away from the window. If she opened her eyes, she would see him staring in at her. He didn’t even care.
To hell with the rules, he wanted this woman to see him. He wanted her. She was different, so alluring and he could not resist her. Just a taste, what would it hurt? I won’t kill her, no, not her.